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Hajia Alima Mahama, the Minister of Local Government, has asked the international community to make adequate contributions into the Green Climate Fund or the Africa Development Fund (ADF) for disbursement towards climate change activities at the local level.

She said there was the need to decentralise climate change activities, with adequate funding at the local level, through simple climate and environmental improvement measures like tree planting, dredging and sanitation.

Hajia Mahama made the call in an interview with journalists after participating in a panel discussion on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Week (ACW) 2019 conference, which closed on Friday in Accra.

The panel discussion examined how to facilitate implementation of countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and SDG-13, among other goals.

The Minister, who is also the Member of Parliament for Nalerigu/Gambaga, said climate change activities should be targeted mainly at the local level since any response would have its impact at the local level.

She said every year, the District, Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies (MMDAs) developed their climate change response activities and the National Development Planning Commission took out issues from the planned activities and develop guidelines for all the local authorities.

“Now they have a three-year Medium-Term Development Plan, that is 2018 to 2021, and in that, they are required to have climate change issues, and they have done that.”

Additionally, the MMDAs are required, every year, to develop their action plans for implementation but the issue is how to have the money and other resources to implement them, the Minister noted.

She said locally there were transfers from the District Assemblies Common Fund and performance-based grants that the Government gave for the implementation of the assemblies’ plans.

Hajia Mahama, however, pointed out the need, at the international level, to earmark some funds or resources through the Green Climate Fund or the ADFR, for the local authorities through the Ministry of Finance.
This, she said, must be based on a certain formula or proposal for the MMDAs to access those funding for the implementation of their action plans.

The conference, hosted by the Government of Ghana, was attended by delegates from all over the world to discuss climate change actions and to strengthen stakeholders’ engagement in key sectors including energy, agriculture and human settlements.

It was a lead-up to the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Summit in September 2019, which is expected to bring together diverse actors from the public and private sectors.